Naming Power Out Loud

Because silence protects the powerful — naming power protects the people.

In classrooms, staff rooms, school boards, and community spaces, power is always present. But too often, it’s treated like a secret — something polite people don’t talk about. That silence is intentional. When power goes unnamed, it can move freely, unchecked, unquestioned, and unchallenged.

Naming power brings justice into the room.It shifts the conversation from “What happened?” to “Who benefits?”From “What went wrong?” to “What system made this possible?”

For children, this is especially critical. Montessori tells us to prepare environments where truth is accessible. That includes the truth about power.

What It Does

This tool helps communities map how power actually works — not how institutions claim it works. Naming power makes patterns visible, makes inequities trackable, and makes accountability unavoidable. Once power is visible, it can be redistributed.

Use It To:

• Map Decision Chains: Identify who makes decisions, who is impacted, and who gets excluded from the conversation.

• Translate Euphemisms: Replace “policy,” “tradition,” and “protocol” with the real explanation: Who is protected? Who is not?

• Teach Children the Truth: Help kids recognize unfairness not as a personal failing but as a structural issue they have the right to question.

• Interrupt Harm Early: When power is visible, it becomes easier to spot abuse, inequity, or exclusion before it becomes normalized.

Why It Matters

Unspoken power is the most dangerous kind.If we want to build peaceful, just communities, we must make power examinable, discussable, and accountable. Injustice thrives when we treat power like a taboo. Liberation thrives when we speak plainly.

Core Message

Transparency is a peace practice.Naming power is how we keep each other safe.